Here's Part 2 of my chat with Margaret Parks of Evergreen Growers Supply, an Oregon-based supplier of beneficial insects and microorganisms.  If you haven't already, be sure to listen to Part 1 to get an introduction to using beneficial insects in your grow operation.  

Some important links to go along with this conversation:  Evergreen Growers Supply dmvbeneficials.com Cucumber Beetle Trap Japanese Beetle Trap

JOIN ME for a FIELD DAY AT MY FARM in Philadelphia THIS SEASON.  

Register for the April 14th Field Day here.  

If you liked this episode, you'll want to also listen to: 

Episode 21: The Magical BRIX Number That Stops Pests with Dr. Tom Dykstra

Episode 25: The Power of Pusle Watering with Emma Horswill of Earthenry Farm

Episode 29:  Nutrient Balancing in Living Soils with Bryant Mason, the Soil Doctor

Join the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network for more resources and Q&As with podcast guests.  

HAVE IDEAS AND FEEDBACK ABOUT THE PODCAST?  Share your opinions in this brief survey.  

As always, if you appreciate this podcast and all the education it provides, please take a moment out of your day to rate and write a review for it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening to it. 

I’m joined in this episode by Margaret Parks of Evergreen Growers Supply, an Oregon-based supplier of beneficial insects and microorganisms.  We begin by discussing the big picture pieces of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as they relate to small scale flower farming.  Then we dive into spider mite control with three fantastic beneficial insects.  We also touch on banker and trap crops as well as the importance and fundamentals of scouting. 

Some important links to go along with this conversation:  Evergreen Growers Supply Margaret’s Critter Links

The mite predators Margaret mentions are:  fallacis-spidermite-killer.html">Amblyseius / Neoseiulus fallacis  (pronounced "fuh-LASS-iss") punctillum-spider-mite-destroyer-group-stet.html">Hypoaspis miles / Stratiolaelaps scimitis – (pronounced "stratio-LAY-laps") persimilis-in-vermiculite-group-persv.html">Phytoseiulus persimilis – (pronounced "per-SIM-ih-liss")

Margaret offered a great pro tip during our conversation I thought I’d put here in the show notes so it’s easy to reference.  Add site:.edu after google search terms to find university and extension publications quickly without having to weed through all the companies sell stuff.  

Because Margaret had so much great info to share, I’ve split my conversation with her into two parts. Tune in again for Part 2 where we talk about a few more specific pests, like cucumber and Japanese bettles, as well as a natural product Evergreen Growers offers to combat gall.  

If you liked this episode, you may want to also listen to: 

Episode 8: Dahlia Pest Management with LeeAnn Huber of Coseytown Flowers Episode 15: A Little Goes a Long Way in Regenerative Flower Farming KNF and JADAM with Tony Gaetz of Bare Mountain Farm Episode 21: The Magical BRIX Number That Stops Pests – An Exciting Conversation with Dr. Tom Dykstra

HAVE IDEAS AND FEEDBACK ABOUT THE PODCAST?  Share your opinions in this brief survey.  

As always, if you appreciate this podcast and all the education it provides, please take a moment out of your day to rate and write a review for it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening to it. 

Margaret Parks of Evergreen Growers Supply

Host Jennie Love walks listeners through a clear and concise discussion of what natural farming is and how to begin making natural inputs like JADAM Microbial Solution (JMS).  If you've been intimidated by the host of natural inputs talked about in Korean Natural Farming (KNF) and JADAM, this is a great introduction that will demystify the process and get you started.  

Mentioned in the episode: 

Registration for the CREW virtual seminar to help you find and manage a great crew for the coming season.  

The JADAM book

The JADAM YouTube channel

The Regenerative Flower Farmers Network where you'll find the transcript for this show and several related articles to making natural inputs for your regenerative farm (you must be a member to access it)

If you enjoyed this show, you will also enjoy listening to these past episodes: 

• Episdoe 17: Exploring the Science Behind Natural Farm Inputs with Nigel Palmer
• Episode 15: A Little Goes A Long Way In Regenerative Flower Farming: KNF and JADAM with Tony Gaetz of Bare Mountain Farm

Please remember to rate and review this podcast!  Many thanks! 

Guest Bryant Mason of Soil Doctor Consulting in Colorado joins host Jennie Love in a lively conversation about nutrient balancing and soil testing, including key nutrients for better flower production and stem quality.  Follow Bryant on Instagram @soil_doctor.  

Bryant has developed an easy online tool to help you directly to interpret your soil tests and choose natural amendments accordingly.  Click here to learn more.  

Covered in this episode are:

• The Different Forms of Nitrogen
• Calcium
• Phosphorous 
• Magnesium
• Soil pH
• Soil Paste Test and Soil Testing in General
• Tissue Testing
• Water Management
• Testing Natural Inputs for Nutrient Levels

Resources mentioned in this episode are: 

• Biomin Cal-Boro (calcium boron feed)
• Infiltration Ring
• Chart for Mode of Nutrient Uptake in the Root Zone
• Logan  Labs

Past episodes for further listening include:

Episdoe 25: The Power of Pulse Watering with Emma Horswill

Episode 17: Natural Inputs with Nigel Palmer

Episode 15: Korean Natural Farming and JADAM in Flower Farming with Tony Gaetz of Bare Mountain Farm

Episode 4: Soils Testing 101 with Ellen Polishuk 

HAVE IDEAS AND FEEDBACK ABOUT THE PODCAST?  Share your opinions in this brief survey.  

As always, if you appreciate this podcast and all the education it provides, please take a moment out of your day to rate and write a review for it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening to it. 

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It’s seed starting time!  I’d venture to say this is what we growers are live for!  Watching seedlings grow in the depths of winter is the best mood lifter.  Those of you in the Southern Hemisphere are likely gearing up for your late summer sowings for cool annuals too.  So it seemed like a great time to do a deeper dive into seed sowing with my old friend and seed starting pro, Lisa Mason Zeigler from the Gardener’s Workshop. 

Lisa literally wrote the book, called Cool Flowers, on starting seeds for early spring crops. She’s been flower farming for 25 years and runs a seed supply house.  She’s also the host of the Field & Garden podcast, which you should check out if you haven’t already. 

In this episode,  Lisa and I talk all about seeds.  Everything from seed storage tips to creating a living soil with natural inputs to even a bit about sowing by the biodynamic calendar.

If you’d like to get my written out Regenerative Seed Starting Mix Recipe, join the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN) to download that today. 

Lots of links to share with this episode:

new-organic-grower-3rd-edition-eliot-coleman-7696.0.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAleOeBhBdEiwAfgmXf3aGRX8nDn9rjdMwI-HbY-VaSn9yhrdqB9oLNT5uNEenVQCnRJSulBoCiiEQAvD_BwE"> The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman

Seed-Germination-Introduction-min.pdf"> Seed Germination Theory and Practice by Dr. Norman Deno (free download)

seek.com/gardening-moon-calendar-guide-february-2023"> Biodynamic Calendar (make sure to set your specific location for accurate days)

A study about the importance of the first few days of a seedling’s life and how they develop

Maxicrop (kelp product)

WCA (calcium input)

LAB (video on how to make it)

A Of-Vermiculture-On-Plant-Growth-Edwards.pdf"> study on worm castings enhancing germination

A study on worm castings improving disease resistance

TED talk on how bacteria “talk” with autoinducers

Past episodes mentioned in this conversation for further listening include:

Episode 21: BRIX with Dr. Tom Dykstra

Episode 15: Korean Natural Farming and JADAM in Flower Farming with Tony Gaetz of Bare Mountain Farm

Episode 16: Biodynamics with Erika and Ken from Teton Full Circle Farm

Episode 23: Bokashi and Worm Farming with Matt Arthur

HAVE IDEAS AND FEEDBACK ABOUT THE PODCAST?  Share your opinions in this brief survey.  

As always, if you appreciate this podcast and all the education it provides, please take a moment out of your day to rate and write a review for it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening to it. 

Guest Laura Beth Resnick of Butterbee Farm in Maryland joins host Jennie Love again to discuss building and rebuilding a successful farm business over the past decade. 

Covered in this episode are:

- Finding land to farm - Pros and cons of renting versus buying farm land - Funding sources for land and infrastructure - Making infrastructure decisions - Bringing goats to a flower farm - Finding peach of mind and courage in the face of big change and wintertime

Mentioned in this episode are: 

The Regenerative Flower Farmers Network

Jennie's upcoming virtual farming cohort where she'll coach a small group of flower farmers throgh the spring. 

Laura Beth's previous episode here on No-Till Flowers.

Laura Beth's online class about building a farm, including more details about funding. 

A past episode on farmer burnout and mental well-being with Amelia Ihlo.

The "goat moat" fig guy, Three Fold Farm in Mechanicsburg PA (they have an earth battery green house too). 

Farm Service Agency (FSA) for farm loans

Please take a moment to rate and review this podcast wherever you are listening.  

Find No-Till Flowers on Instagram @notillflowers

Host Jennie Love walks listeners through a clear and detailed description of how she has prepared no-till beds at her farm over the seasons.  She goes into particular detail about the "deep mulch system" that many smaller diversified farms use for no-till bed preparation.  Jennie also discusses her own journey to getting started with no-till farming back in 2018.   Water and weed concerns related to no-till beds are also disucssed in this episode.  

Mentioned in this show:

Registration for the 2023 No-Till Flowers Farming Cohort is now open and you can sign up here.  

Andrew Mefferd's book, The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution

Join the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network to read detailed articles on and see lots of photos of no-till bed preparation.  

If you enjoyed this show, consider listening to these related episodes: 

• Breaking Down Compost with Guest Jesse Frost
• Improving Poor Compost with Guest Ellen Polishuk 
• Talking All Things No-Till Flowers with Guest Tony Gaetz from Bare Mountain Farm
• Pulse Watering with Emma Horswill from Earthenry Farm

Please rate and review this podcast wherever you are listening so we can grow the auidence.  

Welcome to Season 3 of the No-Till Flowers podcast!  Emma Horswill from Earthenry Farm in Tasmania joins host, Jennie Love, for a lovely chat that hits on several important regenerative farming practices. 

The primary focus of this episode is irrigation, particularly an approach to it called "pulse watering".  Other topics include cover cropping, fertigation, quickly imporving poor compacted soil using regenerative methods, creating a flower farm that's very asethetically pleasing for a you-pick operation, and converting a horse farm to a flower farm.  

Links mentioned in this episode are as follows: 

Earthenry Farm on Instagram

Dahlias in Australia: The Winkie Way (the book Emma used to originally learn about pulse watering) 

The Regenerative Flower Farmers Network where members can download Emma's fact sheet on pulse watering.  

Steve Solomon's "Complete Organic Fertilizer" recipe. 

Daniel May's book The No-Till Organic Vegatable Farm

ARC Centre for Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture (Australian think tank for future proofing our farms)  

Teeming with Bacteria by Jeff Lowenfels  

Please rate and leave a review for this podcast as it helps us tailor the podcast even more to your needs and helps other listeners find it.   Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for more content and conversations.  And become a member of the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network to access additional detailed resources and live Q&A events as mentioned throughout the podcast.  

Do you view your farm as a production space? A landscape that should generate x number of stems in x square feet for x amount of dollars each season?  Many farmers do.  In this episode, host Jennie Love encourages listeners to look at their farms as whole ecosystems that serves millions of lives, not just your own goals.  Jennie is joined by author, Dr. Doug Tallamy, a professor in the University of Delaware’s Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology.   For years, Dr. Tallamy has studied how insects interact with plants and how those interactions impact the food web, right up to us humans.  He’s authored several books, including Nature’s Best Hope, which is the main focus of this episode’s discussion.   

Farming is the single biggest land-use category on this planet!  With nearly 50% of the earth’s land being used for agriculture, every single farmer HAS to be part of the solution as we face down the 6^th great extinction our planet has seen. Some of the actionable steps that Doug and Jennie talk about are to:

• stop spraying pesticides of any kind
• plant native plants
• increase diversity of plants, particularly trees
• leave your weeds alone
• and stop manicuring your farm and let it get a little loose and wild.

If you enjoy the content you hear on this podcast, consider joining the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN), a community of like-mind growers who put the ecosystem at the forefront of their farms.  It's less than the price of a fancy latte to join for the whole year! Members get special access to podcast guests and other exclusive content, including an article with 15 favorite tried-and-true native plants for cutting.  

Please rate and review this podcast on whatever platform you are listening.  It only takes a minute and your review helps spread the word about this podcast and its important message so we can effect even more positive change for our earth and our community.  Many thanks for your help with that!

In this episode, host Jennie Love is joined by farmer Matt Arthur of BLH Farm to dive into bokashi and worm farming at a scale that can actually provide a large volume of high-quality compost and castings for a small farm. 

If you've struggled with making compost on your farm or finding well-aged, herbicide-free compost locally, bokashi could be the solution you've been searching for!   An anerobic fermentation process, bokashi does not require a carbon source and takes a fraction of the time to produce finished compost that the more widely-known and used areobic compost pile does.  Listen as Matt explains why and how.  Originally farming flowers, Matt has diversified his business in recent years to include a paid food waste collection service for his local community to support his larger-scale bokashi operation.

And that bokashi operation produces high-quality feedstock for his worm operation!  He sells castings and worms locally and nationwide.  Matt's inspirational system is very do-able for just about any farm and requires no large equipment. 

Find Matt on Instagram @blh_farm and at his website: https://blhfarm.com/

In this show, Matt mentions 96 gallon "rollers".  Here's a link to a video showing how to convert one for bokashi as well as where to buy the components. 

Matt also mentioned EM-1.  Here's a link to where to purchase it: https://tinyurl.com/musry4hh

Coming up on October 28th, 2022, there will be an in-person No-Till Flowers Field Day at Jennie's regenerative flower farm in Philadelphia.  Click here to register. 

If you enjoy the content you hear on this podcast, consider joining the Regenerative Flower Farmers Network (RFFN), a community of like-mind growers who put the ecosystem at the forefront of their farms.  It's just the price of a fancy latte to join for the whole year! Members get special access to podcast guests and other exclusive content.  Matt will be answering questions about bokashi and worms live on RFFN in November. 

PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW THIS PODCAST WHEREVER YOU ARE LISTENING: this helps us grow our aduience!  

Follow @notillflowers on Instagram for lots of content about regenerative flower farming.